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I started my first novel the summer after sixth grade. I was twelve years old. By the time summer ended, I was roughly halfway through the book. I think I wrote one chapter during seventh grade, if that. I don’t recall really touching it while I was in school. But during the summer after seventh grade, I finished it. I was thirteen and I had finished a real, full-length novel. The following summer was the first agent attempt, but that’s a different story.

Once I was finished working on my first book, I went back to write another. My head was teeming with ideas, as only a teenage mind can, and so when I had an idea that felt formed enough to get started, I would sit down to write and…nothing. Absolutely nothing. I wrote a page, maybe two, three if I was really lucky. But I couldn’t really get off the ground. I was a plane with fuel but no ignition. And then a new story idea would come around and I would try with that one. Wash, rinse, repeat, no luck.

I have distinct memories of worrying whether the novel I had written in middle school would be the one and only novel I would ever write. How could I have really peaked at age thirteen? I knew I wanted to be a writer. How could I be a writer if I didn’t write? I am sure I was a joy to be around during these moments, something my parents could attest to.

Then the summer after freshman year of high school came and I attended a summer writing program for a week at Sarah Lawrence College. I was part of Group 5, a bunch of teenagers from all around the country (despite being in NYC Tri-State area, we had someone from California and Michigan). I remember having so much fun with them for the week and laughing like never before. We stayed in touch after the program, which was a blessing to me, because that October, one of them asked if anyone was participating in NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is the challenge to anyone insane enough (raises hand proudly in the air) to write 50,000 words in the thirty days of November. It’s a free “competition,” run by the National Novel Writing Month charity, which promotes literacy and writing. I say “competition” because you are only competing against yourself. If you write the 50,000 words, you’ve won. So has your neighbor, your best friend, your frenemie, and that stranger on the other side of the world, as long as they each wrote the 50,000 words. Winners do get prizes, generally in the form of eternal bragging rights and discounts on writing software and other writing materials.

I decided to try this my sophomore year of high school. And what do you know, I wrote a novel in November (during which my computer had to be fixed, a nightmare on its own and again a different story). I had actually written another novel. I remember being so excited and relieved at the same time. Because here was a system that got me to commit to a story and write it.

Since that November, I have figured out that I write best under the following conditions: with a deadline and accountability.

Deadlines for me are when there is a hard stop for when something is due. The NaNoWriMo deadline has gotten me to write whole chunks, if not entire novels in the thirty days. Even if I have completed NaNo, but not finished the book, I have had enough written to keep going. Other deadlines, like my thesis deadline, have similarly helped to get me to sit down and write.

Accountability for me is when someone else is expecting work from me. I told my thesis advisor I work well with deadlines. He said, prove it, I want a chapter at the end of every week. He got a chapter at the end of every week and I went home for winter break of my senior year with a complete first draft of my thesis novella. I have now enlisted my sister to pose as a similar accountability enforcer. She gets to call me every weekend and demand that I send her what I have written the past week. Woe to me if I have nothing to send to her.

I sometimes wonder what advice I would give writers just starting and it’s this: find out how you write best. What conditions will get you to write? Is it a deadline? Is it writing a little bit every day? Is it prompts? Is it having someone holding you accountable? Is it a writing group? Try out different things until you figure out whatever it is that gets you sit down and put words on paper.

This also goes for the environment in which you write. Do you write at home? At a local coffee shop? In an office? At the library? Do you write with other people around? Do you write where no one can see you? Do you play music? Do you write in silence? Do you have a special playlist for each project? Do you have snacks at hand? Do you have your favorite tea steeping by your computer? Do you have a special sweater you need to wear? A blanket on your lap? A stuffed animal you get to cuddle or strangle depending on how the writing is going?

For the life of me, I don’t know how I wrote my first novel, how a story sustained me for over a year to completion. All I can say is that I was in love with it, so I wrote it. But sometimes you fall out of love with your stories or even if you love them, life gets in the way. What do you do then?

Knowing how you write best is a great set of tools to fall back on. It won’t always work. Sometimes the tricks just are not clicking, and you need to try something new. I recently started writing in ice cream parlors, because I wasn’t being productive at home anymore. My writing and my stomach are very happy. It’s much easier to try something new if you already know what’s old.

Ultimately, love of the story and the art will carry most writers across the finish line. Up until that last sprint though, when the end and victory is in sight, every writer could use the perfect recipe to keep us going.